Brandon Sanderson

Devotion and Dominion. Aona, and the other I can't recall.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Right, right.

On a completely different note, something that stuck out to me rereading Stormlight 1 & 2 is that Roshar is absolutely lousy with conspiracy groups, especially for a fantasy series, but I'm not sure how many there are exactly? There's the Ghostbloods and the Diagram guys, of course, but then there's Amaram who belongs to something called the Sons of Honor who don't seem to be involved with either of the above (despite being associated with Galavar like Taravangian was), considering their interest in bringing back the Voidbringers. Then the 17th Shard, which is kicking around, and finally Helaran, who doesn't seem to really fit in with any of the above considering that he apparently associated with Hoid.

edit: Ooooh, Heleran was an amateur Skybreaker? Well, that's an interesting wrinkle.

e2: Oh man, that might explain why Shallan's mother tried to kill her. Following Nael's lead...

edited 22nd Aug '16 11:41:33 AM by kingtiger522

Word of God is that Odium is terrified of Sazed, since he's currently the most powerful entity in the Cosmere. It seems that he's straining the limits of his prison (though we still don't know if he's literally imprisoned or just too distracted to leave) so that he can kill Sazed before Sazed figures out what to do with all that power.

Dominion's holder was Skai. I hope we get more information on him and Aona. Well, I know we'll get more eventually, but I hope that they're not just a rehash of the Preservation and Ruin opposing forces thing. Dominion has sort of been set up as the Evil Counterpart of Devotion, but I think it would be cool if they were on friendly terms. Maybe that's why Odium had to kill both of them. Of course, I doubt Dominion would be happy being subordinate to anyone, so it's not like Odium could just recruit him.

The fact that he's trying to kill Sazed implies to me that it's probably more binding then distracting; if it wasn't, I'd imagine things would be going even worse than they are in Scadrial :P

The exact mechanics of how stuff works in Roshar are a really interesting mystery to me, mostly because Sanderson's done a really good job of employing unreliable narrators. Dalinar's visions are fragmented at best, the Spren remember very little (and are tight lipped about other stuff), Jasnah's a Flat Earth Atheist (which is something of an impediment to understanding), Hoid is... um, Hoid, Taravangian's whole deal makes him kinda wacky... there's no really good sources on much of anything. That may change when the cast starts exploring Urithiru, but for now it's all pretty great how effectively the mystery and misdirection has been maintained without making it feel obtuse.

Still doing my Mistborn reread. Things I've noticed: Kelsier mentions that young mistwraiths aren't intelligent (he's clearly under the impression that kandra are just older mistwraiths), and there are a few interesting references to the Deepness, the force the Lord Ruler destroyed to justify his rule.

Since the Deepness were the mists (strengthened by Ruin), I guess he changed the color so people wouldn't ask why they were still around if he supposedly destroyed them.

There's also Kelsier's fascination with a martyrdom religion.

The more I read of Alendi's Journal, after I have read Wo T, the more obvious the expy-ness to Rand al'Thor there is.

You know.

If Lan had betrayed Rand on Moiraine's Orders and then took the power of the Dragon to turn the world in a Dystopia....

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Alendi was more introspective and indecisive and less ruthless and crazy, though.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

So, early-series Rand, before the saidin taint really kicked in.

Alendi mentions having killed friends, even if his Wangst-y writing style does not confer that, so I'd argue he was ruthless as well

And if having Ruin influence you doesn't qualify you for technically crazy...

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I noticed the same thing on my re-read as well. Since I did read WOT between that and my first read.

A bunch of the epigraphs could fully apply to Rand when taken alone.

edited 23rd Aug '16 7:58:25 PM by 32ndfreeze

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

More from the Mistborn reread: Rashek tells Alendi that only a pure-blooded Terrisman can be the Hero of Ages. It's pretty clearly just cultural posturing on his part, but it's also foreshadowing.

Rashek is a Terris Supremacist. he'd be an angry anti-Khlennium hater if Alendi had been the Hero of Ages after all.

Heck, I'd bet money that if Rashek before he became TLR he'd consider Sazed No True Scotsman because he was a Servant and not being in charge.

The fact that he became Scadrials biggest Boomerang Bigot nonwithstanding.

No matter what else, Rashek was pretty much a Jerkass

edited 24th Aug '16 1:21:39 PM by 3of4

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There's something hilarious, in a "generations of suffering" sort of way, about the fact that Rashek started out talking about how the Terris should be dominant because they have cool powers and ended up trying to wipe out their cool powers and make them so subservient that Sazed's their loose cannon who needs to turn in his badge. Man got problems staying on message.

On the subject of looking back, now that we know all about feruchemy and have names for the ferrings of sixteen metals and so forth, it's kind of funny to think about what a jaw-dropping moment it was when Sazed wrecked a Steel Inquisitor by tapping strength. That shit came out of nowhere.

I've always thought it was hilarious because that scene as described sounds like something out of a cartoon. The Inquisitor is about to kill Vin, then Sazed essentially whacks him on the back of the head with a Bible.

I wish we had a better idea of what Rashek was like pre-Ascension. We only saw him through the eyes of a man he hated, which colored things more than a bit. Was Ruin the one who told him to kill off all the Terrismen, or was that his own idea? I just wonder what he would have done without Ruin's influence. The hemalurgic creations were all Ruin, so they wouldn't be around, but would Rashek have normally given the Lerasium to his sixteen closest friends, then ruled the world as an immortal council?

Well, Rashek complains that Marsh betrayed him despite him making the Inquisitors 'dominant'

(which again, goes back to Rashek wanting Terrismen be dominant because superpowers)

In the end, Ruin cannot make people do a 180° (unless they go way too crazy with Spikes), he can only inspire to Motive Decay to some extend.

So, Rashek was probably always an angry Terrisman Edgelord Xenophobe. Ruin just pumped fuel and chaos on that fire.

Rashek didn't give the Lerasium to his closest friends

His closest Friends became Mistwraiths (together with any other living Feruchemist at the time) and then the First Gen of Kandra.

Also, Ruin probably couldn't influence Rashek until after he started going serious with Hemalurgy and his spiffy Atium Bracers, so him turning his fellow Packmen into Mistwraiths (for which he used his power as Sliver) was all Rashek. Him deciding to breed out Feruchemy out of his people is merely a extension of that, though that may have been Ruin edging him to greater extreme.

I also find it...interesting that Rashek, despite professing to hate all things Khlennium incorporated a lot of things into his Final Empire. Me things this is a bit more than just him commiting to the role.

edited 25th Aug '16 6:15:32 AM by 3of4

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And then he turns around and oppresses the shit out of the Terrismen, which doesn't seem to fit that. "Terris is great and we should rule the world" immediately becomes "I will wipe out you people and your religion". The question is whether that's because he wanted to avoid anyone using the same compounding hack he was, or because of Ruin's influence (or a bit of both).

Yes, thus why the comment was phrased as a question of whether Rashek would have normally done that (if not influenced by Ruin).

I don't believe that he actually used hemalurgy on himself at all. His atium bracers pierced his skin because if he lost them he would die, and he didn't want some punk coinshot murdering him from afar by pushing on the metal, not because they were hemalurgic spikes. He was already a full feruchemist (naturally, from birth) and full mistborn (he made himself one during the Ascension), and he doesn't seem to have been aware of any of the hemalurgic abilities besides "stealing feruchemy" and "stealing allomancy", so what would he even used a spike for? Ruin could talk to him because he wielded Ruin's power, not because he had any spikes.

edited 25th Aug '16 6:24:11 AM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

The bracers were spikes. Though probably not intentional.

And Rashek never truly wielded Ruin's power (save the occasional Atium burning and the Atium bracers). He was a Sliver of Preservation.

edited 25th Aug '16 6:27:01 AM by 3of4

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...oh, right, the Well was Preservation's power, but was used to imprison Ruin's mind. Ruin's power was trapped in the atium.

So wait, then why did it "fill up" and have to be drained every thousand years? I always thought it was because it was Ruin's power, so as it grew, if it wasn't drained then Ruin would be able to overpower Preservation and escape. The way to free Ruin was to "release" the power without using it, after all. Using it up kept Ruin trapped. How does that make sense if it was Preservation's power?

Cosmere metaphysics are hard.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

If Preservations power was called up but not used then (as Rashek did) the Prison would consider the inactivity reason to let Ruin go (as Vin did).

After a use, the Shardpool would then need another 1000 years to refill and could then be used again. It didn't refill every thousand years but thousand years after use

Thats based on how Preservation build the Prison, according to Secret History

edited 25th Aug '16 7:33:20 AM by 3of4

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So basically, the answer is "it works that way because it was built that way?" That's rather less elegant than my own misinterpretation of things, which is somewhat disappointing.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

i'd look up text quotes, but I'm atm also punching Demons in Westfall to death with my bare monk fists.

edited 25th Aug '16 7:43:57 AM by 3of4

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That makes it a little unclear whether Preservation specifically built the prison that way, or if that's just the way the metaphysics of the Cosmere work. It could go either way, really. Maybe Preservation did it on purpose so that every thousand years the prison would be renewed by whoever uses the power. On the other hand, the way he says "the powers would interpret" implies that he knows it's a glaring flaw in the prison that he had no way of fixing.

The way Preservation words it, to me, sounds like an unavoidable flaw in Preservation's power.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Technically, the Well doesn't need to have its excess power used up every thousand years. It's just that, if it's not used up, it starts spilling out as a bunch of extra mist that will block out the sun.